# apt-get install gobby-infinote
$ gobby -c gobby.debian.org

	debconf14/LSB



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LSB in Debian
=============

Agenda
------

	* What's LSB
	* src:lsb in Debian
	* lsb-base
	* lsb-release
	* Open discussion and action points

1 What's LSB
- ----------

From wikipedia:
> The LSB is designed to be binary-compatible and produce a stable application
> binary interface (ABI) for independent software vendors.

Homepage: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb

The spec lists all Interfaces (ABI function interfaces) and Data definitions
(content of cups/cups.h e.g.), SONAMEs, etc, across multiple architectures.

Mostly useful for non-free binaries to be compiled-once, run everywhere (per
arch though).

There's both an Application Checker [0] and a Distribution Checker [1].

[0] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/tags/application-checker
[1] http://ftp.linuxfoundation.org/pub/lsb/bundles/beta/dist-testkit/

(Quite hard to run, last I checked).






2 src:lsb in Debian
- -----------------

https://tracker.debian.org/lsb

Who's managing that?

<licquia> & <odyx> for Debian, <vorlon> for Ubuntu.

Some things implemented differently, merge pending.

* Not a certified implementation.
* Tricky to maintain
  (e.g. LSB 4.1 mandates Qt3, not in Wheezy, see lsb-desktop's README.Debian)
* Not checked recently
* Probably vastly broken with systemd (but no idea, didn't check)

Now to the binaries…






3 lsb-base
- --------

That's installed on all machines, and run at every boot.

Remember the green [ OK ] blocks on the left column on Wheezy boots? That's it.

	/lib/lsb/init-functions
	/lib/lsb/init-functions.d
	/lib/lsb/init-functions.d/20-left-info-blocks <- :-)

	startdaemon
	pidofproc
	log_daemon_msg and friends
	init_is_upstart

_None_ of that is used when using systemd, but that must stay at least in
Jessie.

13 bugs. Of those, 10 are tagged wontfix.

Some merging with Ubuntu pending action there.






4 lsb-release
- -----------

Tool to discriminate distributions (silly per se besides specific use-cases).

Has 94 reverse-build-dependencies. o_O

Debian-specific implementation to guess/build/invent versioning out of
base-files + apt cache.

3 bugs, mostly pending action.





5 Open discussion
- ---------------

* What should be kept in Debian?
	a) nothing?
	b) lsb-base and lsb-release only, stop maintaining the rest
	c) fix the bugs, don't touch the rest (aka LSB 4.1)
	d) fix the bugs, upgrade to LSB 5.0~beta2, but do active checking
	   (That would need halp).
* Volunteers ?



Action points:

* Reach out to Valve to see whether they're interested
* Fix the $n small bugs
* Upgrade the dependencies to LSB 5.0~beta2 ?
*